 So, you'd like to find out the best ways to make money from your art in 2023 and beyond? Well you're in the right place because I've got 20 ways for you to do just that right here in this video. Hello and welcome or welcome back to my channel, my name is Sophie and I help artists just like you to set up and grow a successful business doing what you love. And if you'd like to learn more tips and tricks on building that successful art business then you're in the right place because on this channel that's exactly what we do, share all things art business related. So don't forget to subscribe to the channel and hit the bell to get notified every time I post a new video. Okay, so let's talk about the 20 best ways to make money from your art. So here's the thing, there's a couple of ways that we can structure the business right? So when you're putting together your business and you're thinking about your business model, how you want to work as an artist, you're likely going to have to make a big decision. Are you going to create what you want to create, find the perfect audience and then get out there and market to that audience? Or are you going to do some research and find out what people are already looking for and create a product or service that matches what's already been looking for? Right, so it's two very different ways of working. Neither of which are right or wrong, there's no right or wrong, both of which will work but there'll be a different route to market. The first one, you're going to create whatever it is you want to create without any attention to how you're going to market it or the audience that are going to buy it, you're just pouring all your love and attention into this item. Then you're going to work out who's going to buy it, where are they, how do I get this in front of them and then you go down the marketing path. Or the other route where you say I'm doing all the research to find out what people are actually searching for, what they're looking for right now and I'm going to provide something that meets those requirements. All right, so that's something we just need to think about before we dive into this list. Are you ready? Have you got a pen and paper handy? Ready to write down? Maybe not all 20 things but the ones that you go, oh yes, I need to do that. That's one, that's one of my three. All right, then don't forget at the end of the video, let me know in the comments below which ones you're going to focus on. Number one, you're going to provide what people are looking for. All right, so this is a route to market. So you are going to do some research and work out what people are looking for, specific of course to what you do and you're going to create work or services that deliver on that. Number two, you're going to do some research and find out trends. You're going to work with trends and you're going to work really hard to do your research to work out what is going to be the next big trend and you're going to see if you can't get onto that trend and ride the wave of that trend because you know what can happen is you create that piece of work that happens to be on trend you didn't realise and suddenly you can't produce enough of it. What if you actually did that on purpose, you went and you did the research, you used some tools that are available out there and you discovered what was trending, what was about to trend and you create work ready for that trend. So that's the second way that you can make money. So first one is you're going to provide what people are looking for. Second one is you're going to see if you can't get early onto a trend and ride that trend wave. Number three ways you can make money, if you've got an audience already, why don't you ask them what they'd like to see more of? So many times we don't talk to our audience, right? You have an exhibition or you have an open studio for someone like myself who's a painter and you sit there and you don't speak to anybody, right? People are coming through and at the end of the show you don't have any data. What if you actually took the time and spoke to people or you could get people's phone numbers and ring them up and say I'm working on a new collection? I'd really love to know what are you specifically looking for? Do you have any requirements that you need to meet when you're looking for artwork? They might say we actually only really look for enormous artwork. We look for light bright colours or we're looking for this particular sculpture to go in the garden rather than the house. Wouldn't it be good to know what your customers are already looking for because then you could tailor what you're doing to meet those needs and you could likely follow up with the people you've spoken to once you've created it as well, all right? Number four, if you're not already offer commissions and this can really fill a gap. If you are a two or three D creative and you've created some work and you've had people look at it and you know how it goes sometimes as a shopper you go, you look and there isn't quite the right thing. You think, oh, if only I could have that smaller, larger you know, this colour, that colour and what if you offered commissions and then you could say, well, I will paint that or make that the size that you would like or with the colours or with the theme that you would like. So long out, there's a caveat here. So long as if you're an abstract landscape painter you don't end up painting someone's dog just because they're gonna pay you, all right? You're gonna hand that on to someone you might know who's a portrait painter, all right? Because that would be the right thing to do. The next way to make money and I can't suggest this enough is stay in your lane, all right? Do what you do and do it well. Don't be swayed to go over here just because you saw somebody else sold something like that over there. If you've got something that you do and you love to do and it's very clear and you've got a unique angle, just keep doing that. Because if you do, use all the things that I spoke about and you've avoided the three big mistakes that I spoke about in this video then of course you will head towards the sales. But what can happen is that you're creating the work, you're creating the work, you're not doing some of the other things that leads towards sales and you end up jumping off that lane and going over here. But actually if you just stay in your lane and you follow some of the other advice that I've got on this channel as I say that I've mentioned in the three reasons why art might not be selling video which is up there and also put a link to below here. Then of course you will end up making the sales. All right, the next way to make money is not to have too much choice, less is more. All right, somebody comes to an exhibition and you've got 10 different themes going on, multiple sizes, you've got prints available as well as originals. People have too much choice, they don't know where to go. Have you ever been to that restaurant that's got a three page menu with really small writing and there's just way too much choice and you end up just going somewhere else because you can't make a decision, right? Make sure that you have just a few things, enough choice or the option for commissions so that people can easily make a choice. I promise you, you're going to sell more. You stay in the lane, you do what you do, you have a small range but not too big and you'll make more sales. I know personally, going back to the restaurant I love a menu with about five to 10 things on it because at the end of the day I go up and down, I've just got to make a choice and I'm going to love it anyway if it's a restaurant that I love eating at, right? So if somebody comes and loves your work they've just got to make a choice. Quite often people don't want to make a choice and when you give them 30, 40, 50 things to make a choice from, then they are going to run for the hills, all right? Less is more. Number seven ways to make money and that is to create a quick win. So for example, again, if you are a painter and you've created loads of beautiful original work maybe you've got a few prints, why not actually create something that's an entry point item? So some simple cards or little booklets or a calendar, something that's just a few dollars, preferably under 10 or under 20, that's an easy way in for people. It's something they can take home with your image, with your details, with your social media, with your phone number, your studio details, whatever it might be but there's nothing easier for somebody to just go, oh, I'm not quite sure about all of this yet. I'd like to go on the mailing list but actually there's a calendar for $20, I can get that and then I've got pictures, I've got 12 pictures that I can look at and of course then at that point chances are they'll look at the website and they might buy further down the track. So quick wins are really easily, it will get your customers starting to focus on you, think about you and more importantly, hand over some money so they've made that very first purchase with you. Number eight, make it easy for customers to speak with you. Sometimes they feel a little daunted, they wanna speak to the artist, they want to find out, do you do commissions? Do you have a payment plan? Maybe they've got a lot of questions but if you are hidden away in your studio with no phone number, no email, no way to reach out, then they won't, they're gonna go somewhere else. So if you wanna make sales, make sure that on your website if you would like people to ring you, it says at the top, call me on this number and then they're like, okay, that's easy, there's a number, there's a phone number. How many times have you gone to a website and there really aren't any clear ways of getting in touch with a person? What do you do? I know what I do, I leave that site behind and I go and look for somebody else. So if you wanna make sure that you're making sales, make it really easy, tell people how you want them to get in touch. I hang out on Messenger, please send me a Messenger chat here. Please send me a WhatsApp that message over here and I will respond straight away. I prefer email, here's the email I'd like you to reach out to me, right? Make it easy for them to get in touch with you and tell them how you'd like them to do it. Oh, number nine, number nine is probably my favorite way to make sure that you're gonna be making those art sales and that is before you do any of this, build your artist business plan first, all right? You wanna make money, then the only way you're really gonna make sure that you're gonna make consistent money and we're not talking about a one-off sale, we're talking about regular, consistent sales is to build your artist business plan first. Now I do have some resources to help you with that. I have a free checklist that you can grab below this video. I also have an online course called build your artist business plan. It is in fact called build your artist business plan. It's gonna take you through all my seven steps to completing an artist business plan that you can then use to go ahead, make sales, make money, leave whatever job you might be in, make a full-time living from your art. So if you'd like to grab that course, have a look at the link below this video and you can grab yourself that course right now. You know what they say, no business plan, no business. And I found that really to be true. You know, when you just, again, punting in the dark, hoping that something's gonna work, right? There's no strategy, there's no plan. You haven't worked out how you're gonna do this, what you're gonna do. You haven't worked out the core basics. It's gonna be very hard for you to make any money from your art. So, build the artist business plan first. Next up, you need to have a clear marketing plan. You might have all the products and services in the world and you might have worked out who your audience is, but if you've got no marketing plan to get in front of them and actually to help them over that hurdle of making a purchase with you, then you're really going to struggle. So you need the business plan but you also need a clear marketing plan, right? You need to work out what strategies you're gonna use, where your audience is already shopping, what are their habits, how are they doing all of this? You need to get a plan to get in front of that audience and you need to make them an offer that they really can't refuse, right? You want to make them a really good offer. You know, come over to my shop over here, use my 20% discount on your first purchase. You need to give them reasons to buy. So there we go, marketing plan being the next one. The next way to make money is to focus on building your mailing list. I have a client who recently made a special offer to her list and sold, I think it was something around 16, 18 paintings off the mailing list, off a few emails. If you are not building an email list, you're gonna really struggle to make consistent sales. It's such an easy way to market, all right? So build the mailing list. Now I've got lots of videos to help you do that. So I'll put some links to those videos below here. So again, after you've watched all that and you've got your free resources and you've done what you need to do, then you can watch how to build the mailing list as well. Number 12, become a marketing ninja. All right, I want you to put an affirmation. I am an art marketing ninja. Write it down, put it wherever you want to put it, reword it, put it in a way that feels right for you, but you want to learn to love marketing. You want to fall in love with marketing. Marketing and sales is a phrase. It's just marketing, it's on its own. It's not sales on its own, the two go together. You want to make sales, you've got to become great at marketing. You want to learn how to do it, you want to practice how to do it. You want to be doing it on a daily basis. Marketing leads to sales. No marketing leads to no sales. And I'm pretty sure that you wanted sales, right? So become a marketing ninja. Or we're at number 13 now, lucky for some. Fill your calendar with selling opportunities, right? When I very first started out as an artist, I left my full-time teaching job, and I thought, okay, what am I gonna do? I made myself a simple plan. I didn't, at that point, understand the power of a full business plan, but I made a very simple plan. And the number one thing I did was fill my calendar with exhibitions, solo exhibition, group exhibition, art fairs, open studios. I filled my calendar with opportunities to sell. And guess what? I made sales, all right? You know, if you have a calendar with nothing in it, again, that's going to be difficult for you. So this is all gonna depend. If you are selling online, then you need to fill your calendar with periods of time you're gonna make a special promotion. You're going to launch something. You're gonna give a special offer, right? That needs to be in your calendar. So you wanna fill up your calendar. If you're a 2D artist, the next way to make slightly easier money, of course, is to create prints from your artwork. So very often we pour a lot of energy, time and love into an original piece of artwork. And then when it's gone, it's gone. But it's quite easy these days to make other products from your images. So if you are, this only obviously works if you are a 2D artist and a 3D artist. I guess you can do something similar. So make prints out of the artwork. Now you have another product to sell. And of course for a lower price point, which again might be a nice gap between that low hanging fruit, that sort of calendar or card that someone's bought, maybe the next time they make a sale from you via your mailing list they'd like to buy a print. And then at some point they'll save up and they'll buy an original. Then you can take that a step further on the next way to make money. Consider actually creating what we call more of a lost leader. Something that's going to lead up to further sales. But when I started out, I made greetings cards. Lots and lots and lots of them, of all my paintings. And then I had a multi-buy, buy one for this price, buy five for this price or buy 10. And the 10 was the best price. And I really put lots of signs up by 10 cards. And people went through and got their 10 packs, 10 packs. Now they went home and they gave out those 10 cards with my details on the back. Next time people came in saying, oh, so and so it gave me this card which I really love. I looked up your details and now I'm coming to the show. So already it might be not a direct, I mean it'll make you some money but not make you millionaire selling greetings cards. But certainly it's like a little marketing card that goes out all over the place. Imagine if somebody bought 50 cards and then they put them all out. That's 50 bits of free marketing that's gone out. Right, via their friends and their connection circles. So consider that as a route to money as well. All right, the next way to make money, of course, is to set up print on demand for say products. So you've got an image, you can create an image or a pattern or something that you can upload to one of these websites, a third party website and that image will be printed onto whatever products you choose. So again, it's another income stream, all right? So as a 2D artist, I've got original, I've got a print, I've got a card, I've got a calendar or a book, something like that. Now I can use print on demand and I can put those images onto t-shirts, mugs, tote bags, you know, computer covers. I'm talking to you on my iPhone, it's got one of my paintings on the hard cover of the phone. Like these days, you can get your images out anywhere. You could be more of a fabric designer, put patterns onto fabrics and people would be buying that. Right, there's no end to the ways you can make money from your artwork. So number 17 again, takes this a little bit further. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. If all you do is focus on one income stream overall, then you're going to struggle because if that one income stream falls down, then you are stuck. Now in my previous video that I mentioned at the beginning when I talk about the three reasons why you're not selling, there's something in there where I talk about where you're gonna say, hmm, Sophie, I'm pretty sure you mentioned I should just be focused on one thing. So I just wanna clarify, this is not about income streams. We would love for you to focus on one thing at a time, complete its run, go back and set up another income, complete its run, go back, start up. Now if you don't know what I'm talking about here, make sure you watch the three reasons why you're not selling your art because in there I go into debts and detail. But over time, as part of your business structure, you want to have multiple streams of income. Right, think of a table. It's only safe that table if it's got three or four, I mean three legs, it wobbles a little bit, if it's a little table, if it's a bigger table, it needs four legs. You can't have a table upright with all your things on it with one leg, right? It's gonna be one leg, it's gonna, whoop, it's gonna fall down. You need to make sure that you are building a business over time that's got various different income streams to it. So one of the ways you can add an income stream is consider something like Patreon or a membership where people can actually subscribe for a small monthly fee to get access to perhaps you're working in your studio or if your teacher some more content prior to a workshop or a course or it could just be studio updates, access to you, you could be frequently asked questions, whatever you like. People pay that small amount of money and they have that extra access. It's a really great model, it's a recurring income stream, it's definitely not a passive income stream, but it's another income stream adds another string to your bow. So if you're not doing something like that then consider that as a really, that's quite an easy extra income stream to put in. Number 19, we're nearly there. We have the last two ways to make money. Consider an affiliate deal. So what does that mean? If you, for example, are a teacher or you're a painter and you use a lot of product, consider going to where you buy your product. If you use one particular brand, that's your favorite brand, consider getting in touch with them and see if they have an affiliate program. So if you teach, this is particularly pertinent because you can send all your students via what they'll give you as an affiliate link. I'm sure you've all seen those. So they click on the link to go and buy the materials that you've told them to buy. You are now going to get a small percentage of everything they've bought from that company, right? But it's good for the company because you've bought them a new client. So it is a win-win situation. So have a look and see what affiliate sort of deals you could sign up to and have available on your website. It might be that you advocate certain books and you want to become an Amazon affiliate and you set that up and you have links to books that you recommend on your website and they all go become an affiliate link through Amazon. And again, it's not going to make you a millionaire, but it's another income stream. Some of these things, you set them up once, you kind of set and forget and they become a passive income stream over time. I've got more videos on things like that. So make sure that you've subscribed to the channels that you don't miss out all these opportunities and ways to make money and build a successful art business. Last but not least, make sure that you get some firm good quality support to do all of this. Because the only way, again, you're going to really build that successful business is probably not alone. Who here really wants to build an art business on their own? All right, all on their own in the studio, not talking to anybody. You want a community of people that are going to support you, champion you, are going to be there to help you to when you're having a down week or month, you're going to be there to bore you back up again. So all of that is really important and it all leads to sales because as we know, and I talk about a lot on this channel in my programs and my membership, is that 80% of your success is mindset alone. If you believe you can, you will. If you believe you can't, unfortunately, you will as well. All right, you've got to get the mindset into the right place that's supporting what you're doing. And part of that can be by joining a group of other artists who are also on the same journey who would like to be part of that and going to support you so that you can keep your mindset positive and keep you moving forwards. And of course, positive mindset means positive action and good action, as we know, leads to sales, especially if you've got all of or a good number of these things I've talked about, like your ducks aligned, a number of these things done. Now I asked you at the beginning if you'd like to work out what things you're going to focus on. So it could be that you need to press pause or you need to zoom the video back to where I start the 20 things, go back over, watch it a second time, that's good as well, or maybe watch it a third time and really decide, okay, what do I need to do first? Where am I on my journey? So I need to get the business plan done or I've already got that, but I need to focus on my mailing list or I'm going to ride the trend wave, whatever it is for you, let us know in the comments because I love to hear from each and every one of you and find out what it is that you're doing. And of course, if you found this video helpful, please give me a thumbs up because that helps other artists to get a chance to watch this video as well. Now, if you like that help and support and you like the idea of finding out more about being part of a community of like-minded artists, then right now, at time of shooting this video, I'm about to open the doors to my Art Business Academy Monthly Membership and I will put a link below this video where you can find out more. Now, if you're watching it later, the doors may be closed, but you can get on the wait list, don't worry. And then you could be the first people to find out about it when we do open the doors. But right now, as I'm shooting this, in October going into November, we're about to open the doors and the Art Business Academy will be available for you to join for an extremely low affordable monthly fee. So I said, if you want to find out more about that, then make sure to get the link below this video and there's all the information that you could ever want. All right, as I said, I hope you've really loved this video. Thank you so much for watching and good luck with making money and selling more of your art in 2023 and beyond.